1837 Capped Bust Half Dollar. Reeded Edge. 50 CENTS. GR-24. Rarity-2. MS-64 (PCGS).Brilliant apart from delicate champagne-gold highlights that are more pronounced on the reverse. Both sides are satiny in texture with all major design elements sharply rendered. This coin and other high grade 1837 half dollars may owe their exceptional preservation to the Panic of 1837, which settled over the United States after New York City banks suspended specie payments on May 10, 1837. Bank customers could no longer exchange paper at par for specie, leaving paper money and copper coinage to carry the work of day-to-day business in most areas of the country. Millions of half dollars, along with Spanish colonial 8 reales and smaller subsidiary denominations, sat in bank vaults, despite the 1837 establishment of a bullion fund by Act of Congress that allowed the U.S. Mint to produce silver coins without waiting for deposits of bullion. By the time the panic subsided, allowing silver coins to reenter circulation, few high grade examples were left among the bank stockpiles. For the quality-conscious type collector, this lovely near-Gem represents an important bidding opportunity.PCGS# 531078.Acquired from David Lawrence Rare Coins, via private treaty, February 1, 2014.
